Mouse in the House!

Molly woke me at 4:00 AM the other day barking at the cabinet under the kitchen sink.  I had seen evidence of a sneaky little mouse elsewhere and had already cleaned that area and put in the recommended peppermint saturated cotton balls. Now it was obvious he/she decided to try a different area.  Of course neither Molly nor I saw the  creature so we went back to bed.  Later, I cleaned under the sink and put all doggy treats in a tin can with a tight fitting lid. Surely, the mouse wouldn’t be interested in sponges or dish detergents.

Fast forward a couple days.  I loaded my washer with laundry, opened the dispenser and poured in detergent.  I heard a click, click sound as it fell against the glass in the door of the washer.  Flowing detergent does not make a clicking sound! Looking in the washer I found several pieces of dog food, fished them out of my dirty tee shirts and shorts and proceeded to add a bit more detergent along with some water to be sure to wash out the detergent opening. Then I turned on the machine.  More clicking!  More dog food! Turning off the machine  I removed the whole dispenser from the machine and looked behind it and yes, you guessed it, more dog food! I spend the next few minutes spooning out dog food and fishing more out of my laundry. What I thought Molly was eating had been stored by a mouse in my washer! I was not happy!!  I finally got the load of laundry done and found only two little pieces of dog food I’d missed.   Now, if Molly has any left-over food in her bowl at the end of the day it is put away, out of reach of the nasty hoarder.

After a trip to town the Tomcat Mouse Killer is placed in strategic places and I hope soon for the demise of the mouse/mice.   When mice are mentioned in the Bible, yes, I looked it up in Strong’s Concordance, it is in a negative context. So, I think, God is okay with my battle plan.

So, what lesson am I learning?  Plug up holes with steel wool and keep Tomcat Mouse Killer on hand.  And, of course, put away the food!

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  I’m definitely not thankful for the mice, but I am thankful to have clean cupboards. I may not have had the motivation to get it done otherwise.  And I did not let that sneaky little creature steal my joy, at least not for very long.  There are much bigger and more important battles to be fought.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).